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American Dreamers

The Times Editorial Board has called on the Trump administration to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that temporarily shields some young immigrants from deportation and allows them to work legally.

We’re featuring stories from young immigrants who were spared from deportation and permitted to work during the Obama administration.

Karina Macias Sandoval

University Talent Acquisition and Strategyfrom East Palo Alto, Calif.

“You’re going to need really thick skin this year.”

High school college counselor, 2012

As a 3.8 GPA student with leadership roles, extra-curricular activities, community service, and decent SAT scores I was confident that my senior year of high school would be a copy+paste of movies, shows, and books I’d obsessed over the years.

So when my college counselor (shout out to Anna!) sat me down to discuss the difficulty of the college application process given my status, I thought I could handle it.

My naïveté told me that I’d worked hard and should look forward to big envelopes.

I received a lot of small envelopes, and without financial aid available to undocumented students, even the big envelopes felt small.

June 15, 2012 felt too good to be true. College would start September 2012 and I looked forward to summer where paid internships had finally become a possibility.

With DACA I’ve interned at non-profit organizations, social venture funds, tech companies, and since graduation in May have landed in the biotech industry.

This December marked 19 years in “el norte,” and in that time I’ve discovered the magic of perseverance, made life-long friends and mentors, welcomed two baby brothers, and watched in awe as my parents build and re-build their American Dream.